Well, it’s easy to criticize the idiots trying to undo this disaster of monetary madness with more monetary madness. But what would I do, given plenipotentiary powers? My main objectives would be to:

• Rebuild the nation’s balance sheet by encouraging savings and penalizing consumption. The primary tool for doing this would be the replacement of the income tax with a consumption tax.
• Reduce the excessive and asymmetric employee compensation and other abuses that result from ineffective corporate governance and disregard for shareholder rights. This would be accomplished by restructuring the composition of company boards of directors, for example the inclusion of union and employee representatives as well as small shareholders.
• End the destruction wrought by abusive labor unions by repealing the Sherman Act antitrust exemption, eliminating the strike privilege for public sector unions, and providing for European-style co-determination.
• Eliminate the taxing privilege of the plaintiff’s bar by making attorneys who accept cases based on contingent fees fully responsible for the defendant’s costs, jointly and severally with the plaintiff, in the event of a successful defense.
• Eliminate the Federal deficit by a variety of steps, the most effective being to reduce the military budget to a level not to exceed 200% of that of the next largest country (or bloc). Currently, this would imply an 80% reduction (not counting ex-budget wars). Many Federal departments that duplicate states’ responsibilities would also be eliminated.
• Reduce the cost of health care and improve its availability by implementing a national health-care system, similar to those in use in Europe and Canada, funded by a combination of taxes and user fees. This would also eliminate the need for Medicare, private health insurance and a patchwork of other industries and programs.
• Drastically reduce crime and terrorism, and the expense of criminal and military interdiction around the world by legalizing most recreational drugs. Drug abuse would be treated as a public health problem. It is 1933 again, it is time to repeal Prohibition (again).
• Increase investment by changing Social Security from pay-as-you-go status to an actuarially funded investment scheme.
• Reduce political corruption by eliminating contributions of all kinds.  Public funding for reasonable campaign expenses would be available to any candidate. Funding and the Federal ballot would be open to all, subject to a deposit system, as in the U.K.
• End the monetary follies of the Federal Reserve by restricting its mission to that of ensuring a stable and appropriate supply of money and credit. This would include acting to limit total credit market debt outstanding.

Once we’ve got that done, we’ll see how it goes.